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THE CLERGY AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 



LETTER FROM 



WILLIAM CHAUNCEY FOWLER, LL. D. 

[Republished from Barnard's American Journal of Education for January, 1868. 






^O THE 



'^gnurttau Journal of cUruration, 



[national series,] 
No. 2. —JANUARY, 1868. 

CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Portrait of Nathan Bishop, LL. D., first Superintendent of Public Schools in Provi- 
dence, R. I., and in Boston, Muss., . . . . 209 

I. The Clergy and Popular Education „ 211 

Letter from William Chauncey Fowler, LL. D., 211 

II. English Pedagogy — Old and New, 223 

III. A New Discovery of the Old Art of Teaching, by Charles Hoole, 223 

Part II. The English Grammar School in 1659, 225 

1. The Usher's Duty, 225 

2. The Master's Method, 267 

3. Scholastic Discipline, 293 

IV. Abraham Cowley, and Realistic Instruction in England, 325 

Memoir, 325 

V. Plan of a Philosophical College in 1661, by A. Cowley .' 327 

The College, or Organized Society, 327 

Grounds, Building, Equipment, 328 

Professors, Scholars, and other Officers, 329 

The School and Methods of Instruction, 331 

Results of Education and Society, 333 

Essay on Agriculture in 1661, by A. Cowley,.. 334 

Suggestion of a College of Agriculture, 336 

VI. Public Instruction in Switzerland, 337 

Canton of Zurich 337 

Territory, Population, Government, School Organization, 337 

System of Public Instruction, , 338 

Compulsory Attendance — School Officers, 338 

1. Primary Schools, 341 

Elementary School — Real School — Repetition School, 313 

Seminary for Teachers of Primary Schools, 345 

Teachers' Certificate — Chapters — Synod — Annual Meeting of Teachers' Synod,... 346 

2. Secondary Schools, 351 

3. Superior and Professional Schools, 354 

(a) Gymnasium, Lower and Upper, 357 

(b) Scientific Industrial School, 358 

(c) Veterinary School, 358 

(d) Agricultural School, 359 

(e) University, or Faculty of Theology, Law, Medicine and Philosophy, 360 

Cantonal Normal School at Kussnacht, 361 

Cantonal University at Zurich, 366 

Swiss Federal Polytechnic University at Zurich, 369 

VII. The Philosophy and Method of Teaching, 381 

As Taught at the State Normal School at Westfield, Mass., 381 

VIII. Coeducation of the Sexes, 385 

Experience of Oberlin College from 1833 to 1868, « 385 

Note— Oberlin College, 400 

IX. Normal Schools, or Seminaries for Teachers, 401 

Address by John S. Hart, LL. D., Principal of State Normal School, Trenton, N. J., 401 

X. American Ethnology, 425 

Proposition for a National Society, 427 

95" The American Journal of Education, National Series, Volume L, for 1867-8, edited 
by Henry Barnard, LL. D., U. S. Commissioner of Education, is issued quarterly at $4.00 per 
annum, (four numbers,) by D. N. Camp, Publisher, Hartford, Conn. 



v<6& * 



cXr. THE 



E CLEEGY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 



LETTER FROM PROF. WILLIAM C. FOWLER, LL. D. 

Durham, Conn., December, 1867. 
Henry Barnard, LL. D. : 

Dear Sir : — A few weeks since I had the pleasure of receiving 
from you a letter, in which you ask me to communicate some facts 
connected with the common schools in Connecticut " as they were." 
While I was endeavoring to collect these facts, I met some Gentle- 
men in Hartford who are active in promoting the educational inter- 
ests of the Commonwealth ; one of whom encouraged me to prepare 
for the press, some remarks which I made on a topic which came up 
in that interview. This I consented to do, with the purpose of 
uniting the two topics in one communication. 

But to whom shall this communication be addressed ? My mind 
readily turned to you as a distinguished friend and advocate of popu- 
lar education who has labored long and successfully in this State 
and elsewhere, first as a pioneer, and then as a victorious soldier, in 
this good cause. I feel too assured, that you will welcome every 
well-meant effort for promoting the same cause, however inadequate 
it may be. 

The topic, last mentioned, is, The province of the Clergy 
of Connecticut in the promotion of popular education in 
this Commonwealth. 

These remarks and statements, will, I trust, be well received by 
them, inasmuch as they are in harmony with the views of the clergy 
of Connecticut from 1635 to the present time. 

The proposition which I shall endeavor to sustain, by the following 
plain arguments, is this, Ministers of the Gospel in Connecticut ought 
to take an active part in promoting popular education. 

My first argument in support of this proposition, is derived from 
the nature of Christianity. 

It is a religion which addresses accountable beings through their 
intellect. Just in proportion, therefore, as you improve their intel- 
lect by culture, will you enlarge their capacity of being influenced, 
in their moral instincts, by the objects of divine truth in that reli- 
gion. . Now as Christianity is a general provision for the spiritual 
wants of all mankind, we may be sure, that all classes of the com- 

(211) 



212 



THE CLERGY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 



munity ought to experience so much of intellectual culture as will 
enable them to appreciate and appropriate the full benefit of that 
provision. 

Other religious systems were designed, at least in some of their 
parts, for certain privileged orders, who should enjoy high mental 
culture ; while the many, the oi pottoi, were excluded from a full 
participation. Those systems had their esoteric or secret doctrines, 
which were communicated to the favored few, the initiated ; and 
their exoteric or superficial doctrines, which were communicated to 
the common people, who were supposed to be incapable of compre- 
hending those deeper doctrines. 

But among christians it is not so. To the poor the Gospel is 
preached. To them it is given to know the mysteries of the King- 
dom. Now in order that this preaching be effectual, in order that 
these mysteries be adequately comprehended, some degree of mental 
cultivation is necessary. Evidently, then, it is the duty of the chris- 
tian minister to promote the intellectual improvement of those whom 
he wishes to influence by his preaching ; for in so doing he is preparing 
them to understand and appreciate the truths and duties of the 
Christian religion, and to yield their conscience and their heart to 
Christ the author of that religion. No christian minister, therefore, 
is justified in standing aloof from the great cause of popular educa- 
tion ; for, without it, the light of the Gospel will shine in darkness, 
and the darkness will comprehend it not. 

In the early period of christian dispensation, the Clergy, the great 
lights of the catholic church, acted successfully on this principle ; 
though they did not, in the existing social condition, extend it in its 
application, so far as we can do. They carefully guarded and pre- 
served the learning of the times in which they lived, and, by the es- 
tablishment of Institutions of learning and religion, helped to keep 
both, in their intimate association, alive on the earth. They carefully 
preserved the Greek and Roman classics, the Pandects of Justinian, 
the Hebrew copies of the Old Testament, and the Greek of the New 
Testament. Thus it happened, through them, that Classical learn- 
ing could revive, and that " the public reason of the Romans " could 
be silently and studiously transfused into the public institutions of 
Europe, and the study of the Bible could become general. In 
many an Abbey and University, the lamp of learning, trimmed by 
their hands, burned brightly, illuminating a wider or a narrower 
circle, and sending down its cheering light to our times. Honor to 
whom honor is due. Let all honor be paid to the Catholic church, 



THE CLERGY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 213 

as the conservator and promoter of learning and religion. "When 
darkness covered the earth like a flood, during the mediaeval cen- 
turies, that church was the ark which saved for us. the learning and 
religion of the old world. All thanks to the bright example of 
her heroic missionaries; for the recorded lives of those eminent 
saints, who through the long centuries, bore the mingled fruits of 
learning and holiness, for such as " Pascal who was all reason, 1 ' and 
for such as " Fenelon who was all love." 

My second argument is derived from the nature of Protestantism. 

The right of -private judgment, in opposition to human claims to a 
dictatorial authority, in matters of faith, is an essential article in the 
protestant faith. Now this single fact, that we are to call no man 
master, is assumed on the ground that the followers of Christ are ca- 
pable of forming, from the Bible, an opinion for themselves ; and in 
order to form this opinion for themselves, from the study of the bible, 
they ought at least to be able to read the bible. For how can a 
man, in the exercise of the right of private judgment, form. a correct 
judgment except on a correct basis, and how can he have a satis- 
factory basis in the bible, unless he understands that bible ? 

Besides the acknowledged advantages which they enjoyed in the 
Catholic church, some of the first reformers desired to enjoy this 
right of private judgment. They wished to escape from the heavy 
hand of authority by which they felt themselves humiliated. They 
were opposed to what was called carbonaria fid ' s, " the Collier's 
faith," or implicit faith. A Collier being asked what he believed on 
a certain point, replied, " I believe as the church believes." And be- 
ing asked what the church believes, he replied, " The church believes 
as I believe." And being asked again what he and the church be- 
lieve, he replied, " The church and I believe the same thing." 

Leading protestants, in opposition to this carbonaria fides, undertook 
to have a faith of their own, and to be able to state the grounds of 
their faith. In the language of Chillingworth, " the bible, the bible 
is the religion of protestants." In adopting this for their motto 
they virtually declared that the common people ought to be elevated 
to such a level in the scale of mental cultivation, that in the exercise 
of the right of private judgment in the formation of their opinions 
from the bible, they would not " wrest it to their own destruction." 

The contest on the subject at issue, between Luther and his allies 
on the one hand, and the Pope and his Cardinals on the other, was 
like the battle between the gods, as described by Homer, or the battle 
between angels, as described by JVIilton. There was great intellec- 



214 



THE CLERGY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 



tual power and great learning on both sides ; and it required intel- 
lectual cultivation to judge of the merits of that controversy. Luther 
translated the bible ; but of what use would that be, unless the 
people could read that translation ? Luther, Melancthon and Carlo- 
stadius, all men of great learning, delivered lectures in the Univer- 
sity of Wittemburg, which helped to enlighten the people and give 
currency to his doctrines. The revival of classical learning near 
that time contributed largely to the same effect. 

In like manner the Protestant religion of England was permeated 
with learning, which the Episcopal church there have zealously pro- 
moted ever since they took possession of the Catholic schools and 
universities. Indeed, the leading protestants throughout Europe had 
been highly educated in the Roman Catholic schools, and were thus 
disposed to imitate and surpass them in the establishment of such 
institutions. 

Accordingly, in protestant regions, schools of learning soon shone 
forth on the earth, thick-set as the stars in the sky above. Voetius, 
a learned protestant, boasted that vrfiile in the ten catholic provinces 
of Belgium there were only two universities, in the ten protestant 
provinces there were seven. 

It is true that what is now understood by popular education was 
not then thought of as practicable. The Reformers seem not to have 
supposed it possible that the delights and advantages of learning 
could be brought down to the lowest stratum of the population. But 
they adopted principles and measures that are now operating in 
Germany in the education of the masses, and which justify the clergy 
here in promoting popular education by direct and efficient means. 

My third argument is derived from the nature of Puritanism. 

Besides the general principles of Christianity and of protestantism, 
the puritans adopted the opinion that the people are capable of self- 
government, both in their civil and in their ecclesiastical polity. This 
opinion implied that the people should be qualified, by. education, to 
perform the duties involved in self-government. Accordingly, as soon 
as their circumstances would allow, like the catholics, like the pro- 
testants, they adopted measures, both in England and in this country, 
to establish schools and colleges, under the direction of their learned 
divines. These had generally been educated in the universities of 
Oxford and Cambridge. In eleven years after the settlement of Mas- 
sachusetts, they laid the foundation of Harvard College, to the sup- 
port of which Connecticut annually contributed. In seventeen years, 
they established a system of common schools. The clergy, as is 



THE CLERGY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 2 1 5 

well known, were active in establishing and sustaining these institu- 
tions in Massachusetts. As advisors, as patrons, as teachers and 
visitors, they exerted a controlling and salutary influence. 

Without going into an induction of particulars, it is sufficient for 
my purpose here to say, that the whole history of the puritans shows 
abundantly, that they have been staunch believers in the value of 
local law. They have believed that a Church can govern itself bet- 
ter than any outside person or body can govern it ; that a Town can 
govern itself better than a colony or a State can govern it ; that the 
Colony can govern itself better than parliament can govern it ; that 
a State can govern itself better than congress can govern it. But in 
order to this successful self-government, in these several circles of 
power, they have also believed that the people must be educated in 
the school of Christ, and at least, in common schools. On this same 
belief, the clergy have acted earnestly and efficiently. 

Listen to the prayer made by Eliot, the Apostle John, in a synod 
of ministers in Boston ; " Lord, for schools everywhere among us ! 
That our schools may flourish ! That every member of this assem- 
bly may go home and procure a good school to be encouraged in the 
town where he lives ! That before we die we may be so happy as 
to see a good school encouraged in every plantation of the country." 
This was the spirit of the early ministers, and their conduct was in 
accordance with their spirit. 

My fourth Argument is. derived from the nature of the profession 
into which ministers have entered. 

The object of that profession is to raise the souls of men from their 
earthly condition into union with the divine nature, that they may thus 
become the intelligent, and holy, and happy inhabitants of earth and 
of heaven ; to raise them from the power of appetite and passion 
into the dominion of reason and conscience. This the minister en- 
deavors to accomplish by commending to them the truths of God's 
holy word illustrated by the teachings of his providence. 

In like manner it is the object of popular education to raise 
men in the scale of knowledge, virtue and happiness, that they be- 
come good citizens ; to elevate the tastes of the young from sensu- 
ality, from the bar and the brandy saloon, from the haunts of loafers 
and gamblers, into the love and the pursuit of the true, the good 
and the beautiful. Thus the minister and the educator are largely 
aiming at the same thing ; though the motives employed by the 
former are always supposed to be chiefly drawn from a higher world, 
and the motives employed by the latter may be chiefly drawn from 



216 THE CLERGY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 

this. The christian minister has, then, every encouragement to act 
strenuously for the promotion of popular education, with the full 
belief that while he is promoting that, he is at the same time pro- 
moting the object of his own profession. 

The minister and the school master are fellow laborers in the same 
field. The field is the world. When " the school master is abroad," 
let the minister go forth to meet him and join himself to him as a 
fellow laborer. Let them encourage each other and bear each other's 
burdens, both looking forward to "the harvest home," when they 
shall bring their sheaves with them. 

My fifth Argument is derived from the 'position occupied by the 
Clergy of Connecticut during more than two hundred years. 

From the early legislation of the Colonies it appears, that a reason 
given why schools should be supported, was, namely: that the 
young could in them be so taught that they would be able to " read 
the bible" and the "capital laws," and thus be "fitted for service in 
the church and commonwealth." In the order to establish a free 
school in 1641, in New Haven, "Our pastor, Mr. Davenport" is 
mentioned with the magistrates, as a committee " to consider what 
yearly allowance is meet to be given out of the common stock of the 
town," for the support of the school ; and also, " what rules and 
orders are meet to be observed in and about the same." And, in 
1644, the General Court ordered that a grammar school be set up 
and appointed, and that the "Magistrates and the Teaching Elders" 
be a committee to attend to that, for the same purposes as in the case 
of the first mentioned or common school. It appears that Governor 
Eaton and Mr. Davenport were the active men in thus establishing 
a system of free schools in the Colony. 

And after the Colonies were united, the General Court, in 1690, 
ordered as follows : " This Court considering the necessary and great 
advantage of good literature, do order and appoint, that there shall 
be two good free schools kept in this Colony, for the schooling of all 
such children as shall come there after they can distinctly read the 
psalter, to be taught reading, writing, arithmetic, the Latin and the 
English languages, the one at Hartford, the other at New Haven, 
the masters whereof shall be chosen by the magistrates and the 
ministers of the said counties, and shall be inspected and displaced 
by them, if they see cause." These were grammar schools, after the 
model of the free, or endowed grammar schools of England, in 
which the Latin and the English languages were to be taught 
grammatically. 



THE CLERGY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 217 

While I thus notice the prominence that was given to the clergy 
in the establishment of free schools, it should be mentioned that by 
the original Constitution of Connecticut the " supreme power of the 
ComTfionwealth," was lodged in the General Court, which for a long 
time afterwards gave prominence to the clergy in all matters con- 
nected with education. 

It should be added that the School Masters were treated with 
great consideration from the first. They were among the few at the 
first, who received the title of " Mr.," and not that of " brother," 
or " good man." The school master stood next to the minister in the 
minds of the people ; just as he does in Goldsmith's inimitable de- 
scription in " The Deserted Village " : 

" And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, 
That one small head could carry all he knew." 

Pie was on familiar terms with the minister, and often derived im- 
portant aid from him in the government and instruction of his school, 
aud kept him informed as to the proficiency of individual pupils. It 
is a tradition, that a school master in Guilford from time to time in- 
formed the minister, the Rev. Joseph Elliott, that his son, afterwards 
the celebrated Jared Elliott, was not making much proficiency in his 
studies. On one occasion, when carrying his book to school, Jared 
let it fall into the water, and when standing by the fire to dry it, he 
let it fall into the fire. Upon being reprimanded by the master, he 
replied, " I believe my book is a lunatic, it is oft in the fire and oft 
in the water." The school master, as soon as the school was dis- 
missed, hastened to the minister to say to him, " Jared will make a 
man after all." 

Many of the school masters in the principal towns, one at least in 
each town, made teaching their principal employment through the 
year, namely, such as Cheever, and Tisdale, and Jones. Other in- 
telligent men taught school in winter, and managed their farms in 
the summer; one of these, who was born in 1727, told me that, in 
this way, he taught school thirty years. Others, chiefly young men, 
often the flower of the town, well educated for the times, and from 
good families, taught school for a few winters, until they were mar- 
ried. Females, called school mistresses, and school dames, taught 
the small schools in the summer. Clergymen often taught select 
schools in the winter, for the older youth in their congregations. 

Among these teachers there were indeed those who were but 
poorly qualified for their employment. Some such are described by 
John Trumbull, in his " Progress of Dullness : " 



9}Q THE CLERGY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 

"He tries, with ease and unconcern, 
To teach, what ne'er himself could learn ; 
Gives law and punishment alone, 
Judge, jury, bailiff, all in one ; 
Holds all good learning must depend 
Upon the rod's extremest end, 
Whose great electric touch is such, 
• Each genius brightens at the touch. 
With threats and blows, excitements pressing, 
Drives on his lads to learn each lesson ; 
Thinks flogging cures all moral ills, 
And breaks their heads to break their wills." 

But there were other school masters who led their pupils gently 
up the hillside of learning, bearing their burdens, sympathising with 
their difficulties, and by kind looks, kind tones, and winning ways, 
gaining their hearts. They did for them what Aristotle did for Al- 
exander the great, who, in return, said, he loved him better than he 
did his father Philip, for the " latter was only the father of his body, 
but his teacher was the father of his mind." They did for them 
what Mr. Elmer, her teacher, did for Lady Jane Grey, who, she said, 
" taught me so gently, so pleasantly, with such fair allurements to 
learning, that I think all the time nothing, while I am with him, and 
when I am called from him, I fall on weeping, because, whatever I 
do else, but learning, is full of grief, trouble, fear* and whole mislik- 
ins unto me." I could mention the name of a Connecticut school 
master, who in 1782 taught a select school. About fifty years after- 
wards, a pupil in that school made a journey of many miles to see 
him, and thank him for his counsels and instruction, bestowed upon 
him when he was only eight or ten years of age. 

What a beautiful letter Daniel Webster wrote to his old school 
master, July 20th ? 1852, the last year of his life ! " Master Tap- 
pan, I hear, with much pleasure, through the public press, that you 
continue to enjoy life, with mental faculties bright and vivid, although 
you have arrived at a very advanced age, and are somewhat infirm. 
I came to-day, from the very spot in which you taught me ; and to 
me a most delightful spot it is. The river and the hills are as beau- 
tiful as ever. But the graves of my father and mother, and brothers 
and sisters, and early friends, give it to me something of the appear- 
ance of a city of the dead. But let us not repine. You have lived 
long, and my life is already not short ; and we have both much to be 
thankful for. Two or three persons are still living, who, like myself, 
were brought up, sub tua ferula. They remember 'Master Tappan.' 

And now, my good old master, receive a renewed tribute of affec- 



THE CLERGY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 2 1 9 

tionate regard from your grateful pupil ; with his wishes and prayers 
for your happiness, in all that remains to you of this life, and more 
especially, for your rich participation, hereafter, in the more durahle 
riches of Righteousness. — Daniel Webster." Mr. "Webster was born 
January 18,1782. This letter is a beautiful picture of the feelings 
entertained by ingenuous children, for good school masters in the last 
century. 

For a long period the only two Books in common use in district 
schools, were, first, the " New England Primer" which was an equiv- 
alent, among the puritans here, for a small prayer book, called the 
" Primer " among the Roman Catholics. This, with its frontispiece 
of John Rogers in the flames, and his wife and nine children looking 
on, excited in the mind of the young child while learning its first 
lesson, the deepest sensibility. There was in it the beautiful cradle 
hymn of Watts, appealing, as it does, to the highest sentiments of our 
nature ; and the shorter catechism, to be committed to memory and 
repeated every Saturday. 

The other book was the "Psalter" namely, the book of Psalms 
printed separately. This also was an equivalent for a certain Roman 
Catholic book so called. 

Arithmetic was taught in these common schools, the teacher only 
having a book, and writing the sums for the pupils, and showing him 
how to do them. Sewing was taught by school-dames. 

Writing was also taught, the teacher writing the copy and handing 
it to the pupil with the question, " Can you read your copy ? " 

At a later period, " Dilworth's Spelling Booh, or New Guide" pub- 
lished 1740, was introduced. He w r as an Englishman, and died in 
England, 1781. His book was for a time in common use. Trum- 
bull alludes to it thus, in 1772 : 

" Our master says, (I'm sure he is right,) 
There's not a lad in town so bright, 
He'll cypher bravely, write and read, 
And say his catechism and creed, 
And scorn to hesitate or falter, 
In Primer, Spelling Book, or Psalter." 

His "School Master's Assistant" an arithmetic, was published, after 
his Spelling Book had been well received, in 1743, and was dedicated 
to " The Reverend and Worthy School Masters in Great Britain and 
Ireland." School masters in Connecticut used this book in their 
schools. The sums given out were often cyphered at home in the 
evening. Classes were also taught by the master in the evening, for 
which a small stipend was given. 



220 THE CLERGY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 

In 1784, Webster's Spelling Book began to replace Dilworth's, 
though with some opposition. "Dilworth's Ghost" was written to 
deter the people of the State from the change. Webster's book was 
entitled, " The First Part of the Grammatical Institute of the English 
Language. This book, I have heard him say, was introduced into 
the schools of Connecticut through the influence of the clergymen of 
Connecticut ; though it was highly recommended by others. After 
this, the "Second Part" in the series, was introduced, which was 
published in 1790. This was a grammar. After this, the " Third 
Part " in the series, was introduced. It was a reading book, and was 
published in 1792. "Dwighfs Geography, began to be used in the 
schools of Connecticut, in 1795. It was prepared, by Nathaniel 
Dwight, a brother of Timothy Dwight. Morse's Geography was also 
used, more or less, soon after its publication. 

The first clergymen of Connecticut were educated, many of them, 
at the Universities in England, and had enjoyed intercourse with the 
learned and polished clergymen of the Episcopal Churcn there. As 
we see them now on the canvas, in their wigs, and bands, and gowns, 
we are impressed with the belief that they were gentlemen. Their 
manners were grave, dignified and courteous, and they were regarded 
by the school-masters, and gentlemen, and all of the people as the 
models of good manners. Thus it long continued the case with their 
successors in office. In the schools in the Colony of Connecticut, it 
was expected that not only learning, and religion, and morality should 
be cultivated, but also good manners, in opposition to clownishness 
on the one hand, and rowdyism on the other. The pupils were ex- 
pected to bow or courtesy, or, in other words, to make their manners 
when they entered the school, and when they left it ; and when they 
began the recitation, and when they retired. They were taught to 
address the teacher with the title of " Master." They were taught 
to show respect to age, and station, and moral worth ; to take off 
their hats when they met respectable persons, as the ministers and 
principal men were accustomed to do. This regard for minor morals, 
carried out in many particulars, prevailed in Connecticut for some- 
thing like two hundred years. By thus cultivating the sentiment of 
politeness in the young, their hearts became better, socially, and good 
manners became common law. 

In some of the acts of the General Court the "government" of 
schools is spoken of as if it were as important as instruction. In 
those days children were expected to be governed, not coaxed. This 
government, in those times, is described as being unreasonably severe. 



THE CLERGY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 221 

So it was, judged of by our own standard. But in those times there 
was, in many places, a high type of discipline in the church, in the 
family, and in the town. They or their fathers had left England in 
order that they might have a purer church, and how could they have 
a purer church without discipline ? Parents, in those days, had large 
families ; Dr. Johnson malignantly said of them, that " they multi- 
plied with the fecundity of their own rattlesnakes." Besides, the 
Pilgrims had left Holland that their children might not be corrupted. 
Large families require stricter discipline than small ones. In the 
town, the whipping-post was a standing proof of the importance at- 
tached to discipline. The same doctrine prevailed in the schools, as 
it also did in the English schools. Ministers, too, were full believers 
in the doctrine, that " the rod and reproof bring wisdom." Accord- 
ingly the rod was used, and the ferule, and the block of disgrace, a 
sort of " stool of repentance," on which the culprit sat, until he was 
willing to submit to the rules of the school. 

But the clergy of Connecticut exerted a more direct influ- 
ence in favor of popular or universal education in the State. Hav- 
ing themselves, most of them, been trained, when young, in common 
schools, a large number of them became teachers in them or in select 
schools, during their college course or afterwards. Numbers of them, 
when settled, kept school in their own houses, for the young people 
of their congregations. Clergymen founded Yale College, and for 
more than one hundred and fifty years have controlled it, and pre- 
sided over it. For one hundred and thirty years a large part of the 
students of the State, educated in it, were fitted for college by clergy- 
men. When I concluded to go to college I applied to Dr. John 
Elliot to fit me for Yale. ' He told me that he " felt under (he same 
obligation to lend his aid in fitting young men for college that he did 
to preach the Gospel." 

Clergymen were on the committee for the examination of school- 
masters, and the inspection of schools. They visited the schools, at 
least at the commencement of the season, and at the close. In this 
way they became acquainted with the comparative merits of the 
several schools, and of the several teachers, and of the several pupils. 
They made the condition and importance of the schools one of their 
common topics in conversation, alluded to schools often in their ser- 
mons, and in their public prayers on the Sabbath, they would say, in 
respect to them and the college, " cast the salt of Divine Grace into 
these fountains, that the streams, that annually flow from them, may 
make glad the city and the church of our God." For a long time 



222 



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the town was the parish, and the town schools were the parish 
schools, which the minister felt, officially, bound to foster. And in 
doing this they were often rewarded, even while living, with the 
gratitude, the love, and the confidence" of three generations. And 
when such a one died, great lamentation was made over him. And 
when carried to his grave, he was mourned by the fathers, and the 
children, and the children's children, as one who had taught them 
how to think as men, how to act as Christians, and how to behave as 
gentlemen ; as a light-bearer, who had held for them the torch of 
knowledge, in the meeting-house ; in the school-house, and in the 
dwelling-house ; a torch which some of them were ready to seize and 
hold up in turn in the church, in the school, and in the family. To 
these ministers, we sons of Connecticut, owe something more than 
gratitude ; we owe them undying affection as our spiritual and educa- 
tional forefathers. 

In the minds of the early clergymen of Connecticut, the church 
and the school — the meeting-house for the one, and xhe school-house 
for the other — were closely associated. In the early settlement of a 
town, as soon as the meeting-house was erected, if not sooner, the 
school-house was built, near the meeting-house, the one a symbol of 
learning, the other of religion. When the minister was settled, the 
school-master was sure to follow to establish his little seminary, from 
which the church was to be supplied with intelligent members, and 
the town with intelligent inhabitants. 

With the type of the old Connecticut school-house, which replaced 
the one constructed of logs, and its slender appointments, many are 
acquainted, as some such are still standing. There was the large 
chimney, often on the north end, with its large fire-place, before which 
the children could warm themselves when they came in, or after 
shivering on the outer circle of benches. On one side of the chim- 
'ney was a small entry, and on the other, was a small apartment for 
the hats, or buff caps, and bonnets, and which served the purpose of 
a prison, in which were confined disobedient and refractory children. 
Long benches, without backs, on which the children sat, and thus 
learned to sustain themselves. 

Having been confined in the school from nine o'clock until about 
eleven, and from one until about three, they, at the notice of the 
master, hastened to the play-ground fresh from the "constraint that 
sweetens liberty." Here they contended with each other in feats of 
agility and strength. They were encouraged to wrestle and to run 
well, because they might have to wrestle with the Indians in battle, 



THE CLERGY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 



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or to run with them, for escape or for capture. Accordingly some 
of them emulated the strength of Jacob, who wrestled with the Angel, 
and some, the fleetness of Asahel, Avho " was as light of foot as a 
wild roe." 

And when, perchance, some well-known person was passing, the 
word would come out from some of them, that parson — or squire — 
or doctor — or deacon — was coming. Immediately they would leave 
their play for a moment, take off their hats, or caps, and then resume 
their play. This ready act of civility, they would pay with a con- 
scious sense of politeness, — with a " proud submission," which raised 
them in their own estimation. They had been taught in the church, 
in the family, and the school, to respect what is respectable, and to 
"do their duties to superiors, inferiors and equals." 

It should be added that in the settlement of the country towns, 
before the districts were weakened by being divided, the schools 
were often large. "The boys came to school in the winter, the only 
season in which schools were usually open, from distances of several 
miles, wading through the snow, or running upon the crust, with 
their curly heads of hair often whitened with frost from their own 
breath." 

Visitation day, in the spring, when the inspectors visited the 
schools, was a great day in the district. The minister and some of 
the principal men were present. The school-master was in his glory, 
now that others had come to magnify his office. Many of the parents 
were present. The inspectors were interested to behold the "spent 
gregis" the hope of the church and the town. The psalter was read 
by the older children, and the primer by the younger ones. The 
writing books and the arithmetic books were handed round. In later 
times, lessons in spelling from the spelling book were put out. The 
catechism was recited. The inspectors made their remarks, particu- 
larly the minister, upon the proficiency of the school, the manners, 
the morals, the religion. A prayer was then made by the clergyman 
in which these several topics were alluded to. 

It should be added that a prayer was made by the school-master 
in a portion of the schools, at nine o'clock, when the school came 
together in the morning, and at four. In other schools, a prayer w T as 
made only at four, when the school was dismissed. 

On this subject, listen to the language of President Timothy 
Dwin-ht : " Of learning and the general diffusion of useful knowl- 
edge, the clergy as individuals, have, beyond any other class of 
men, been the promoters. To this, their own knowledge, the general 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 327 814 9 



nature of their office, and their comparative leisure from the busy 
occupations of life, almost necessarily lead. In the foundation and 
the regulation of no small number of our schools, they are directly 
concerned as principals. To our college they gave birth, continuance, 
a considerable proportion of its property, and the whole system of its 
government and instruction. They have supported and educated 
more scholars of charity, than the whole community besides ; nor is 
there at this time, unless I am deceived, a single school of consider- 
ation in the State, in which they have not a principal agency." 

Thus the meeting-house was the center of illumination for the 
town, and the school-house was the center of illumination for the 
district. The lights in both were steady, irradiating the whole sur- 
face of the State, like the lights which on some evenings illumine all 
the northern sky. This was before the cunning artificers of the press 
sent up their fireworks to dazzle by their glare and mislead. It was 
the influence of these steady lights that made Connecticut the land 
of steady habits ; a model commonwealth, where, from the culti- 
vation of the arts and sciences, from the general diffusion of knowl- 
edge, the people have in the exercise of the right of private judg- 
ment, pursued a wise policy in their public acts, and in the adminis- 
tration of their own private and local affairs. 

It would exceed my limits to show forth the great results of the 
educational efforts of the clergy of Connecticut. These would have 
to be sought not only in the territorial limits of the State, but 
throughout our broad country, wherever the emigrating sons and 
daughters of Connecticut have fixed their habitation. 

Thus, my dear sir, have I endeavored, briefly to show, that the 
ministers of the gospel ought to take a prominent part in popular 
education ; from the nature of the Christian religion ; from the nature 
of Protestantism ; from the nature of Puritanism ; from the nature 
of their own profession ; from the position long occupied by clergy- 
men. In doing this, they ought to be encouraged by the towns, as 
they were formerly. 

How they should do this, I do not presume to say. Each of them 
has his own gift; each his own circumstances. They have that 
wisdom in the selection of means, which is profitable to direct. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM C. FOWLER. 

p. S. — Your very.valuable Report of 1853, when you were Superintendent of Common Schools 
in Connecticut, renders it unnecessary that I should enlarge my statements on certain topics of 
interest. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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